


bare of fur

by himemiyaa



Series: taz: balance [15]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Horror, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, The Stolen Century, Were-Creatures, Werewolves, also warnings for some potentially upsetting dehumanization stuff, at least comparably happy?, it's fine it's fine it's fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 02:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13113945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/himemiyaa/pseuds/himemiyaa
Summary: “A fucking werewolf,” he says while Merle struggles to make a connection with this world’s Pan for the first time. “That’s pretty cool, right? I fought a werewolf.”“Ifought a werewolf, shut the fuck up,” Lup says with a tired laugh.





	bare of fur

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Voidfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voidfish/gifts).



> happy holidays everybody! this fic was super fun to write and i'm really pretty proud of it, which isn't a super common feeling for me, so thanks to [@kravalicious](kravalicious.tumblr.com) for setting up the secret santa and [@infernaltwink](http://infernaltwink.tumblr.com/) for a good prompt! i really hope you like it!

Magnus Burnsides is bitten at the beginning of Cycle 73.

It’s surprising that he’s the only one bitten. They land in the dead of night -- granted, it seems it’s usually the dead of night here -- and a full moon hangs in the air. (Seventy-three years and one moon is still strange, still alien, still unfamiliar.) In their first exploration of the planet, Magnus goes out with Lup. It’s dark, too dark to see the shape behind the trees that leaps onto Magnus and bites down hard, and only the blast from Lup’s wand illuminates it for long enough to see it clearly: a beast, half-animal, half-man.

When he’s recovering in the medical bay of the Starblaster, Magnus lies there, pale but smiling weakly. “A fucking werewolf,” he says while Merle struggles to make a connection with this world’s Pan for the first time. “That’s pretty cool, right? I fought a werewolf.”

“ _I_ fought a werewolf, shut the fuck up,” Lup says with a tired laugh. She’s glad he’s still got a sense of humor, but she knows by now it’s not indicative of health. There have been plenty of cycles where she’s held someone’s hand as they fade away, their last words one goof or another. She doesn’t relax until Merle’s healing finally sets in, pale golden light shimmering around the wound on Magnus’s shoulder. Color returns to him slowly, and the wound closes, but it doesn’t fully heal. It leaves a scar, big and angry red, joining the gallery of past injuries already spread out on Magnus’s skin like braille.

It won’t heal until everything resets.

* * *

They realize early on that he’ll need to be chained up when the full moon comes. The day before, he’s irritable and moody in a distinctly un-Magnus way. It’s Davenport’s idea, with Taako’s strong support. Lup says it’s inhumane, but in a moment of clarity, Magnus says it’s for the best. “I can feel something wrong,” he says, “I can’t hold it off.” Lup’s eyes are hard, but she agrees on the condition that she sits with him all night. Just in case.

Everyone on the Starblaster can tell she blames herself for his condition. If she’d been just a little bit quicker on the draw, he’d be fine. No one blames her but herself.

* * *

Months in, they’ve nearly all taken a turn watching Magnus overnight. Lucretia read to him while he thrashed against his chains. Davenport poured a glass of wine to help him through the night. Taako spent the whole night cooking and trying his best to ignore the howls. Lup tried to talk to him, to bring him back into himself, to little avail.

It’s Barry’s turn, and he doesn’t know what the fuck to do.

Lup has explained things to him, told him what to expect, even offered to sit with him, but Barry could tell she was exhausted. This would be a hard cycle without the lycanthropy currently afflicting their friend (their brother,) and Lup’s in no condition to stay up all night after the past few days. He kisses her gently on the nose and sends her off to bed, hoping that she’ll manage to get a _little_ bit of sleep in.

“It’ll be fine,” Magnus says in the last rays of sunlight. He always looks gaunt on these days, hollow cheeked and sour-faced even as he tries his hardest to stay positive.

“I know,” Barry lies as he slips a muzzle around Magnus’s face. He thinks he’s going to be the one that ruins this, that something will go wrong. They’ve all survived this far, and it’ll be his fault that someone dies tonight. Magnus will choke himself on the chains and Barry won’t be able to stop him. Magnus will break free and tear his throat out. The list of disasters populates itself in Barry’s head, goes longer and longer as he waits, fists held tight on the knees of his worn jeans.

When Magnus starts to change Barry thinks he should’ve taken Lup up on her offer. He doesn’t expect the violence of the scene to bother him as much as it does. He’s a necromancer, he’s seen unnatural things happen to bodies before, seen them move and shift in strange ways possible only through dark magic. This is that, but _worse_. The dead don’t feel pain, but Magnus does, his bones shifting and cracking and breaking underneath skin that grows rough black hair, his pupils constricting to pinpricks in warm brown eyes that turn sickly yellow and cold. That’s not Magnus anymore, but it is; Barry can still hear his friend’s voice in the screams that turn to howling. There’s a patch on his right shoulder that remains mostly bare of fur, all scar tissue. It’s too familiar. Magnus howls and Barry realizes he’s shaking in his boots, afraid and upset.

This journey, this escape from the Hunger, it just keeps taking from them.

When the change is over there’s a long moment of silence. Magnus pants, his chest heaving against the chains that bind him. Barry adjusts his glasses for something to do with his hands, but he doesn’t dare approach Magnus. He speaks softly, calls Magnus’s name. He knows it’s useless to try to talk to him; Lup and Lucretia are both closer with Magnus than he is, and if they can’t get through to him when he’s like this, Barry certainly doubts he’ll be able to. “Can you hear me, Magnus?” he asks.

The creature in front of him moves slowly, looks up at him through angry eyes that don’t look like Magnus’s. It snarls. Barry cringes away from the look it gives him, hating himself for feeling any fear. That’s Magnus, he reminds himself, it’s just Magnus.

It doesn’t stop the fear.

* * *

Lup can’t sleep. She’s worried about Barry. She trusts him, and she trusts Magnus, even when he’s like this. But she worries every full moon, and she knows how worried Barry is, the familiar way his brows furrow beneath his glasses when he thinks he’s hiding his anxieties well.

He never is.

She’s laying in bed and thinking, her palms resting on her stomach, and she’s staring at the ceiling and listening to the howling, when she makes a decision. She couldn’t get through to Magnus, that’s true. But there were _moments_ , she thinks, where his eyes seemed a little browner, where he thrashed a little less. If she can’t get through to him on her own, that’s fine. They’re a crew for a reason.

She gets out of bed and doesn’t bother to put her uniform on, walking through the hall, knocking on doors. Lucretia comes out immediately. “I can’t ever sleep when he’s like this,” she admits, looking grimly in the direction of the medical bay where Barry and Magnus are.

“I can’t either,” Lup agrees, and they move onto Davenport’s dorm. Lup explains: “We can’t leave them alone like this,” and Davenport sighs. He can’t disagree. Besides, he’d be a poor captain to let his crew do all the heavy lifting.

It takes a few minutes to rouse Merle, but once he’s awake he nods in understanding. “Sure,” he says, “as long as one of you makes me some coffee.”

They reach Taako’s door and Lup knows he’ll be the hardest to convince. He can’t stand the change in Magnus, Lup knows; it makes him jumpy. He’s barely used to living with Magnus as _Magnus_ , let alone as some feral fucking beast. He opens the door quickly, though, face hard like he’s expecting bad news. “It’s pointless,” he says when Lup explains, but she drags him out anyway, slips her hand in his and pulls, and the five of them make their way to the med bay. He’s grumbling as they walk in to see Barry looking white as a sheet against his red jacket. Magnus is squirming, _writhing_ on the ground with his jaws gnashing. Taako looks away, leaning close to Lup to whisper “I told you.”

Lup ignores him. “Hey, babe,” she says by way of greeting to Barry, and her voice is even and calming. He relaxes visibly when he hears her -- not entirely, but a little bit.

“Lup,” he says, getting up from his seat. “What are you guys doing--”

“Shh,” she hushes, walking a straight line towards Magnus.

“Lup, what are you--” Barry’s concern is cut off by an earsplitting howl as Magnus tries to reach Lup, to break through his muzzle, to take a chunk out of her, to bite her. Barry can see she’s got her wand at the ready, as does Taako, but as pale and concerned as her twin looks, Taako makes no move to stop her, nor does the rest of the crew. Barry swallows hard and tries to curtail his fear, as difficult as it is, as Lup kneels near Magnus and sets her hand gently on his shoulder. He keeps snarling, keeps thrashing, as Lup’s hand rubs a concentric circle into the sparse fur on his scars.

“Shh,” she says again, and hums quietly. Taako recognizes it as a song from their childhood, some Elvish folk tune about a bear their aunt used to sing to them. He clenches his jaw and tightens his grip on his wand. “ _I’morko, I’morko_ … It’s okay. Hey, Magnus, it’s okay. It’s just me. It’s just us. Barry, come here,” she says, and Barry’s eyes widen. Still, he does what he’s told, approaches slowly and joins Lup on the ground. She takes his hand and guides it to Magnus, feels it trembling and doesn’t mention it. “See, Mags, it’s just us.”

Lup looks over her shoulder at the rest of the crew and Lucretia joins them quickly, kneeling by Magnus’s head and gently running her fingers over the fur by his pointed ears. She joins Lup in humming, a different song this time, one they remember from the conservatory. He keeps twitching, keeps shaking, keeps howling, but Merle joins them, and then Davenport. The five of them stroke their hands soothingly across his back, his shoulders, his head, and he starts to quiet slightly. Taako scoffs, slipping his wand into the pocket of his silk robe, and even as he joins his family he’s grumbling. “It’s _pointless_ , Lup,” he says again, but he can see the difference it’s made. He sinks down next to Magnus with a begrudging “hey, big guy,” and the massive form in the center shudders and exhales.

Barry realizes Magnus is trembling slightly as he begins to calm down. The process is slow. For an hour or two he still thrashes, still growls at the six of them, but he does calm slowly, his body moving more slowly, his breath heaving more slowly, his eyes closing just slightly. At midnight, Lup moves her hands to his muzzle and removes it, though Taako and Barry share a petrified look as she does.

“Magnus?” she says softly, and the shape huffs out a breath that sounds like yes.

**Author's Note:**

> find me at [traumataako on tumblr!](traumataako.tumblr.com)


End file.
